Predecessor Dream

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/50345188.

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: Gen
Fandom: One Piece (Anime & Manga)
Relationship: Portgas D. Ace & Sabo, Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo
Character: Sabo (One Piece), Portgas D. Ace
Additional Tags: Dreams, Akuma no Mi | Devil Fruit, Mera Mera no Mi | Flame-Flame
Fruit, Reunions, Fights, Hugs, Brotherly Affection, Canonical Character
Death, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Canon Compliant
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2023-09-26 Words: 824 Chapters: 1/1

Predecessor Dream
by GemmaRose

Summary

Sabo has heard of predecessor dreams in passing; a known phenomena which occurs the
first time a new ability-user sleeps, meeting the previous wielder in the place they called
home. Some say they're the final farewell of the last soul tied to those powers, others claim
they're a form of warning, or the mind's way of imparting more knowledge than just the
fruit's name.

Somehow, Sabo hadn't realized what that would mean for him after he ate his brother's
devil fruit.

Notes

See the end of the work for notes

Sabo woke on a ship. This wasn’t exactly unusual, most Revolutionary business required sailing to
and from their destinations. Karasu’s powers were handy, but he was just one man. The unusual
thing was, perhaps, how noisy it was. Revolutionaries ran their own ships, usually with a bare
minimum skeleton crew. So why was he hearing indistinct chatter from at least two dozen people?
Sabo tried to pick out individual voices, and went tense as he realized he couldn’t. It wouldn’t be
the first time he got caught, but waking up still drugged was never fun, and Koala would never let
him hear the end of it if someone had to rescue him.

“Oi, wake up already.” a foot met his middle, and Sabo grabbed his assailant by the ankle, yanking
hard enough to pivot around their foot and sweep the other one out from under them. They hit the
deck with a solid thud, and he rolled to his knees, launching himself at them as his eyes flew open.
The brawl was fast and vicious, no time to think, but a lifetime of training meant he didn’t have to
think. Neither of them could manage to get a solid hit though, and when Sabo finally managed to
break away for some breathing room he realized why.

Ace stood there on the foreign deck, breathing hard and glaring at him, hair a mess and one side of
his mouth swelling where Sabo had caught him early on. A blink, and they were children again,
Ace smiling all vicious after winning their 50th fight for the day. Another blink and they were
adults, Ace flushed and messy-haired from their tussle, and beaming all the same. “I’m still taller.”
he laughed, and Sabo nearly tackled him again.

“Your hat doesn’t count, dumbass!” he snapped instead, darting close enough to get an arm around
Ace’s neck and knock off said hat to noogie him. The beads looped around it were definitely
Dadan’s. Ace squirmed free, laughing all the while, and they flopped to the deck together. It didn’t
matter that Sabo couldn’t remember how he’d got here, or that he didn’t know exactly where he
was. If Ace was here, he was safe. His brothers had always protected him to the best of their
abilities, and now Ace was strong enough for that to actually mean something.

“So...” Ace said, lying with his head next to Sabo’s, their feet pointed opposite directions as they
stared up at the faintly familiar rigging. “You’re the one who ate it.”

“Hm?” Sabo turned his head, frowning slightly at Ace.

“My devil fruit.” Ace said, and Sabo’s everything throbbed, pain stabbing through his head. Ace, a
fist of magma through his chest. Ace, dead with a smile on his lips. Luffy, sobbing with joy when
they reunited in Dressrosa yesterday. Only just yesterday, because he and his entire crew had gone
to ground after Marineford. Had spent two years training, while the rest of the Supernovas broke to
subservience against the New World and its Emperors. Well, most of them broke.

“Oh.” he whispered, and Ace’s hand found his, calloused fingers wrapping around his palm and
squeezing, like they were still just kids playing at independence, too proud to admit they needed
comfort after a nightmare. “Then you’re...”

“What’s left of me, is now part of you.” Ace murmured, his voice nearly blending with the
susurration of voices around them.

“And this place?”

“The Moby Dick.” Ace grinned, a brilliant flash in Sabo’s peripheral vision.

“So then... this is what Karasu called a predecessor dream.” Sabo said, staring up at the perfect
cloud-studded sky. “Why the Moby?”

“I found a family here.” Ace said simply. “And... the treehouse was never quite the same, without
you.”

Sabo laughed, the sound wet and choking as he sat up. Ace followed to curl around his back, arms
sunlit-warm and chin tucked snug over Sabo’s shoulder. “I forgot you.” Sabo admitted. “I forgot
everything except how much I hated Goa. I only remembered after-”

“It’s alright.” Ace murmured, arms tightening around his middle, temple knocking against Sabo’s.
“There’s nobody I would rather have inherited my powers and will than you, dummy.”

“Says the one I had to teach how to read.” Sabo sniffled. “You barely knew how to count to ten
when we met.”

“I was seven.” Ace protested, sitting up and smacking Sabo across the back of the head. “And
being raised by bandits!”
 “Still a dummy.” Sabo chuckled, leaning into the arm Ace left slung over his shoulders. This
would be the last time he was able to talk to his brother, the last remnant of his soul tied to the
devil fruit they shared. “Wanna hear about Luffy?” he asked, and Ace’s smile rivalled their baby
brother’s in brightness.

If he only had until he woke, he was going to make the absolute most of what little time they had
left together.

End Notes

Devil Fruits are already so goddamn weird, let's make them a little weirder.

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